Okay, it's been almost a year, and I keep threatening (in person and via Twitter, mainly) to jump-start this blog but have yet to do so. I doubt this post will do it, but I just have to have a little rant about my local grocery store.It sucks.
I hate it.
I've been shopping there for 14 years because I live in New York City and I don't have a car and it's the grocery store closest to where I live. I also shop at other, less convenient stores, but I regularly have to stop in Food Dysentery to pick up something or other. (As you can imagine, that's not the real name of the store. It's kind of a play on the real name.)
I have hated shopping there for the entire 14 years I've been shopping there. I won't even get into the state of customer service in New York City, but that's just the tip of the iceberg at Food Dysentery anyway.
My favorite thing they do is put price labels on one brand of a product, say, yogurt, but not on another brand. Is that even legal? If my only criterion for purchasing a particular product is the price (as is sometimes the case), then how do I know which one to buy? (That said, they have installed a price-checker but it often doesn't work.)
Sometimes there are no price labels at all on the products, but on the shelves instead. However, the number of times that the label on the shelf corresponds to the product on the shelf is low. Basically, the price of everything in the store is a total crapshoot.
They have a weekly circular, which, during the year I was "marginally employed," I perused regularly and often made decisions about things to buy and cook based on what was on sale. Some of the items on special are only discounted if you use their "Club Card." The cashiers NEVER ask you for your card. Most of the time, they will just swipe a card they have at the register, so it's no big deal. However, other times--and I suspect they do this specifically for products on which the discount is significant--they don't swipe a card, nor (as mentioned) do they ask you for yours.
Which brings us to today. I went there specifically to buy some Ciao Bella frozen dessert product because it was on sale--buy one, get one free. That shit is $5 a pint! No effing way am I paying $5 for a pint of ice cream or sorbet at my the grocery store. I don't care how good it is. Besides, it goes on sale every now and then. There's simply no reason to pay $5 for it when I know that, at some point, it will be two-for-one. I picked up two pints--peach ginger sorbet, pictured above, and raspberry sorbet--and a package of frozen spinach and took them to a register. I left the store a few minutes later $11.89 poorer than I had entered.
It wasn't until I got home that I realized that I had paid full price for both pints. So, shoes and jacket and gloves back on, receipt in pocket, I head back to the store (this is when its convenience really shines). I go to the cashier who checked me out and explain to her that she charged me for both pints when they were supposed to be buy-one-get-one-free.
What does she say? Does she say, "Oh, sorry"? Does she say, "Let me refund your money"? NO! She says, "Did you give me your Club Card?" I fucking knew she was going to blame ME for overcharging me. Because that's the kind of place Food Dysentery is. I calmly respond, "You didn't ask for it." (As an aside, at Stop & Shop, they always ask for your card. Good grocery store.) Does she say, "Oh sorry"? Does she say, "Let me refund your money"? NO! She fucking shrugs! Shrugs! Because it's MY fault. How is that customer service? How is that a good business practice? Why do I continue to shop there when I get attitude like that? (That last is a rhetorical question; I believe it's been answered already.)
With a sigh of annoyance, she got the "key" (I don't know exactly what the "key" does, but there seems to be only one and the cashiers are constantly asking each other for it) and gave me a five-dollar bill even though the pint was really only $4.99 and she didn't even want a penny when I offered it. So I guess that makes up for it. I made a penny on the deal.
